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Old Fish River language
The Old Fish River langauge was an western ulitan language, it was spoken at the region of Fish River(Classical Ulitan: Rualam Bawim ; Old Fish River language: Ngamen Golum), it is thought to be an ancestor of Classical Ulitan. The Old Fish River language was probably the first written ulitan language, they used a script derived from those used by Amutetikam-speaking peoples. Although the language was written, no known inscriptions have ever given the name of the language, the name of the speakers or the country that the Old Fish River langauge was spolem, were not recorded, either. Phonology * in later stages, /h/ started to disappear, and /z/ started to merge with /r/. *the distinction between /i/ and /i:/ and the distinction between /u/ and /u:/ only occured in some earliest inscriptions. *it seems that the pronunciation of /o/ and /u/ were very close that they eventually merged into a single phoneme in later stages. */ə/ were never stressed /ŋ/ is transcripted as , /ʃ/ is transcripted as , /j/ is transcripted as , /h/ is transcripted as grammar word order the word order was free, and it is thought that it used prepositions rather than postpositions. At earlier stages, the most canonical word order was SOV, but in later stages, the main word order started to change into SVO, probably due to the influence of Amutetikam Languages which had different word order. relative clause Old Fish River language did use a prenominal relative clause, but Old Fish River language also used a postnominal relative clause with initial relativizers. In later stages, the use of postnominal relative clauses became increasingly common, and the earlier prenominal relative clause disappeared. The main relativizer of Old Fish River language was ha and ya, when the relative clause is short, the relativizer can also be omitted. question it seemed that Old Fish River language didn't have any question word or affix, it seemed to have interrogative word order, either, it was possible that they use intonation to indicate polar questions. Nouns There were cases and numbers in nouns: singular: * nominative: -u(animate)/-Ø(inanimate) * genitive: -un * dative-locative: -um * accusative: -um(animate)/-Ø(inanimate) * ablative: -ək * comitative-instrumental: -əp * benefactive: -əs dual: * nominative-accusative: -ət plural: * nominative: -o(animate)/-e(inanimate) * genitive: -en * dative-locative: -em * accusative: -e * ablative: -ek * comitative-instrumental: -ep * benefactive: -es The dual number only appeared in some early inscriptions, eventually they were substituted by the plural number. Verbs Agreement: present: *1st sg: -e+aux verb ko("I go")/-o *2nd sg: -es *3rd sg: -e *1st pl: -ek *2nd pl: -es *3rd pl: -i past: *1st sg: -e+aux verb ku("I went")/-o *2nd sg: -as *3rd sg: -a *1st pl: -ak *2nd pl: -as *3rd pl: -e subjunctive: *1st sg: -u *2nd sg: -os *3rd sg: -oti *1st pl: -ok *2nd pl: -os *3rd pl: -ot Negation: -hu The third person singular present form was also used as the infinitive form. The verb ku-("to go") was irregular, its different forms are listed below: present: *1st sg: ko *2nd sg: kes *3rd sg: ki *1st pl: kek *2nd pl: kes *3rd pl: ki past: *1st sg: ku *2nd sg: kos *3rd sg: ke *1st pl: kok *2nd pl: kos *3rd pl: ke subjunctive: *1st sg: ku: *2nd sg: kuwos *3rd sg: kuwoti *1st pl: kuwok *2nd pl: kuwos *3rd pl: kuwot example sentence * zo torum ake - zo-Ø tor-um ak-e - the sun shines on the sky.(when the Sun is seen as a god, it should be "zo-u tormi ake") * kan pinahum hekas? - ka-n pinah-um hek-as? - did you see my friend? Category:Amutet Category:Ulitan languages